@helloween Sounds good for PYR offerings in Quebec Hydro-Quebec's industrial customers who do not participate in improving Quebec's carbon footprint and its economic growth could eventually find it more difficult to take advantage of the state-owned company's preferential rates, PM Franois Legault suggested on Friday. .
Taking stock of the pre-session Caucus caucus, which spanned two days in Laval, the Prime Minister said that his bill on the subject, which was expected in the spring, was more likely to be tabled next fall. in the National Assembly.
If we already knew that the legislative piece would aim to reward green businesses and encourage those that contribute to the growth of Quebec, Mr. Legault specified Friday that it would allow Hydro-Quebec to modulate its famous “ tariff L” according to their efforts.
What we are going to propose are differentiated prices, lower or higher, depending on the decarbonization that is proposed by the company and according to the economic spinoffs, that is to say the inflows of funds that we anticipate at the Ministry of Finance , he explained.
From the moment there is a shortage of electricity in Quebec, we must look at the spinoffs of each of the projects , he argued, pointing out that the province will need 100 additional terawatt hours (TWh) of energy to reach the carbon neutrality by 2050 .
We must also look at the impact on the decarbonization of Quebec, continued the Prime Minister. It is on this basis that we will, in the future, look at the tariffs, and no longer say: "All companies are entitled to tariff L."
" Let's say it's going to become very difficult for a company that emits GHGsto obtain discounts on electricity. »
— A quote from Franois Legault, Premier of Quebec
Mr. Legault recalled that the current energy portrait of Quebec is very different from that which prevailed at the time when various governments had offered discounts to certain industries, aluminum smelters in the lead, due to low world prices which raised the specter of closures.
Find terawatt hours
The intricacies of this important piece of legislation are being brought to light as Franois Legault prepares to begin negotiations with his counterpart Andrew Furey over the Churchill Falls dam and the Gull Island project in Newfoundland and Labrador.
I intend, in the coming weeks, to sit down with Andrew Furey and start the negotiations in practice, he said. We talked about the main principles. The first is [to know] what our tariffs will be from 2041. They too have a series of demands.
In an interview with Radio-Canada earlier this week, the Prime Minister told Patrice Roy that he was counting heavily on these talks with Newfoundland to respect his commitment to lead Quebec to carbon neutrality by 2050.
Hydro-Qubec will indeed have to increase its electricity production by 50% to allow the population to abandon non-renewable energies. Currently, Churchill Falls supplies 31 terawatt hours to Quebec, or about 15% of its annual needs.
The contract between this power station and Hydro-Qubec expires in 2041, in 19 years, while the construction of a dam requires about 15, hence the need to begin negotiations.
As for Gull Island, if the project sees the light of day, it could produce some 2,215 megawatts, a potential that Hydro-Qubec is eyeing in order to increase its production.
These successive releases on energy also come two weeks after the announcement of the resignation of Sophie Brochu. The big boss of Hydro-Quebec announced on January 10 that she would leave office next April , without clearly explaining why she would not complete her term.
Ms. Brochu argued during last year's election campaign that she did not want to see Quebec become the "Dollarama" of electricity. The government is currently looking for a new CEOto replace her.